THUR NOV 12 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s money market liquidity remained tight on Wednesday, with the overnight lending rate rising 7bps to 20.3%, amid the absence of significant inflows into the financial system.
However, the fixed-income market maintained a bullish bias, as renewed buying interest across Treasury bills and FGN bonds drove benchmark yields lower.
In the Treasury bills secondary market, the average yield declined 1bp to 17.8%, with gains broadly distributed across the curve.
Yields contracted by 1bp at the short, mid and long segments, supported by demand for the 85-day, 176-day and 358-day instruments, respectively.
At today’s NTB primary market auction, the Debt Management Office (DMO) offered N800.00 billion across tenors, with total demand reaching N1.12 trillion, translating to a bid-to-offer ratio of 1.40x.
The DMO ultimately allotted N713.30 billion, implying a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.57x. Stop rates remained unchanged at 15.40% and 15.79% for the 91- and 182-day tenors, respectively, while it expanded by 9bps to 15.89% for the 364-day tenor.
The positive sentiment extended to the Open Market Operations (OMO) segment, where the average yield fell 4bps to 18.5%, reflecting sustained investor appetite for short-term government securities.
Similarly, the FGN bond market sustained its bullish momentum, with the average yield declining 7bps to 16.1%. Buying interest was concentrated at the mid and long ends of the benchmark curve, where yields fell 18bps and 8bps, respectively.
The rally was led by the MAR-2036 and JUN-2053 bonds, which recorded yield contractions of 24bps and 21bps, respectively.
Meanwhile, yields at the short end remained unchanged, indicating a concentration of demand in longer-dated instruments.
Overall, the session reflected resilient demand for Nigerian fixed-income securities, with investors extending their search for attractive yields across the sovereign debt curve, even as tight system liquidity continued to push overnight funding costs higher.
X-@theGBJournal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.com|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
